Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) Shares Acquired by Arizona State Retirement System

Arizona State Retirement System lifted its stake in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 1.5% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 44,663 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after purchasing an additional 639 shares during the quarter. Arizona State Retirement System’s holdings in Garmin were worth $9,212,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in GRMN. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. lifted its stake in Garmin by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 2,863 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $591,000 after purchasing an additional 49 shares in the last quarter. Curbstone Financial Management Corp raised its holdings in shares of Garmin by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Curbstone Financial Management Corp now owns 3,886 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $802,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the period. Addison Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Garmin by 11.1% during the 4th quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 522 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $108,000 after acquiring an additional 52 shares in the last quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Garmin by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,821 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $788,000 after acquiring an additional 53 shares during the period. Finally, Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund grew its position in Garmin by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund now owns 13,185 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $2,720,000 after acquiring an additional 55 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently issued reports on GRMN shares. Tigress Financial increased their price target on shares of Garmin from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Garmin to a “sell” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $164.00 to $171.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $210.80.

Insider Activity at Garmin

In other Garmin news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $207.99, for a total value of $366,270.39. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 27,612 shares in the company, valued at $5,743,019.88. This represents a 6.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Matthew Munn sold 4,637 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $225.31, for a total value of $1,044,762.47. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 11,450 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,579,799.50. The trade was a 28.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 23,274 shares of company stock valued at $5,242,686 over the last three months. 19.54% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Garmin Trading Down 1.3 %

Shares of NYSE:GRMN opened at $221.86 on Friday. Garmin Ltd. has a 52 week low of $138.86 and a 52 week high of $246.50. The company’s 50 day moving average is $216.07 and its two-hundred day moving average is $199.03. The company has a market cap of $42.69 billion, a PE ratio of 30.35, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.98.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.41 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.51. The firm had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.70 billion. Garmin had a return on equity of 19.31% and a net margin of 22.42%. Garmin’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.72 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 EPS for the current year.

Garmin Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Investors of record on Friday, March 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.90 per share. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.62%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. Garmin’s payout ratio is 41.04%.

Garmin Profile

Garmin Ltd. designs, develops, manufactures, markets, and distributes a range of wireless devices worldwide. Its Fitness segment offers running and multi-sport watches; cycling products; smartwatch devices; scales and monitors; and fitness accessories. This segment also provides Garmin Connect and Garmin Connect Mobile, which are web and mobile platforms where users can track and analyze their fitness, activities and workouts, and wellness data; and Connect IQ, an application development platform.